A tablet recently placed in the chapel of the United States Naval Home, in Philadelphia, bears mute evidence of the long line of officers of high rank who have served as governors of the institution. Beginning with Commodore James Biddle, back in 1838, the list comes down through men who have served the nation well both as naval men and as men who contributed greatly towards winning for the United States a place among the powers of the world. As the list of names inscribed on the tablet is scanned one is forcibly reminded of the fact that the men of the Navy have not only made up a fighting force, but also a force for peace, in that they have handled —-and handled well—many delicate foreign missions. From Commodore Biddle, down to Rear Admiral Gleaves, the last name on the list, space being reserved for others, all have played a part in international affairs.
Few plans have carried out as well as the original thought that the governor of the Home should be an officer of high rank, “who, with the title of Governor, might, while he gave dignity to the station, sustain no diminution of his own,” as Secretary Paulding so aptly put it in his letter to Commodore Biddle in 1838, offering the position to that esteemed officer. Commodore Biddle accepted the post, and was appointed the first governor, on August 1, 1838, and the station was removed from the jurisdiction of the commandant of the navy yard and made a separate and independent command. The early history of the Home had not been as pleasant as might have been desired, but with the appointment of Commodore Biddle matters soon looked much brighter.
The corner stone of the present building was laid on April 3, 1827, Commodore Bainbridge, at that time president of the Navy Board, delivering the principal address, outlining the fundamental purposes of the Home, purposes that have grown into traditions honored and respected by the governors who have administered it. He said:
The expense of the building which is about to commence under circumstances so auspicious is defrayed out of a fund raised by the monthly contributions of the officers, seamen, and marines in the national service. These contributions commenced in the year 1796, and, of course, nearly contemporaneously with the origin of our naval establishment. By the fostering care of our government, the fund so raised has accumulated to a sum exceeding $200,000. This joint stock is now to be appropriated, under the direction of the government, to the purposes for which it was originally intended. A home will thus be established for the faithful tar who has been either worn out or maimed in fighting the battles of his country. A comfortable harbor will be secured, where he may safely moor and ride out the ebb of life, free from the cares and storms by which he has been previously surrounded. He will here cheerfully and proudly live with his own messmates, with the companions of his former sports, toils and dangers, and where they will animate each other, by recounting the pleasures which they enjoyed, the perils which they escaped, and the battles which they fought. A picture of happiness will thus be exhibited, not less gratifying to the patriot than it will be useful, and stimulating the intrepid youth of our country to enlist under the naval banner that they may also secure similar honors and comforts for a green old age.
The purposes of the Home—the original name of Asylum was changed to the better sounding name of Home, July 1, 1889—are best expressed in these words of Commodore Bainbridge as he laid the corner stone: and the post of governor is best comprehended in the very words used by Secretary Paulding in offering that post to Commodore Biddle.
Born in Philadelphia in 1783, James Biddle, with his previous brilliant record both for war service and general attainments— for it will be remembered that it was he who took formal possession of Oregon in 1817—brought great prestige and importance to the post as the first governor. Commodore Biddle was the first naval officer to propose a school for midshipmen. After some correspondence, and since no congressional appropriation for the establishment of an academy was forthcoming at the time, eleven midshipmen were ordered to the Home for instruction in November, 1839. This marked- the very beginning of our naval school. Lieutenant, afterwards Admiral, Foote, who was then executive officer of the post, interested himself in providing better living conditions for the midshipmen, who were much older than those forming the cadet corps at Annapolis. The building was then housing three distinct institutions; the Home, for which it was originally designed; the general naval hospital for the station; and the naval school. Naturally quite a bit of friction arose.
In 1842 Commodore Biddle was relieved by Commodore James Barron, that unfortunate figure in our naval history. Because of the friction arising from the housing of three distinct institutions under one roof, Barron asked to be relieved in November of the same year, despite the fact that the pensioners addressed a letter to him requesting that he reconsider his decision.
Lieutenant Andrew Hull Foote was left in charge after the departure of Commodore Barron. He was only thirty-six at this time, and much of his brilliant career was yet before him. A devout Christian and temperance worker, he induced many to sign the temperance pledge and it was at the Home that Foote began his crusade against liquor that had much to do with the final abolition of the grog ration in the Navy.
Commander William Wister McKean was ordered to the Home in February, 1843, Lieutenant Foote remaining. Commander McKean was followed in May, 1844, by Commodore Charles W. Morgan, the Navy Department having decided to put a post captain in command. In 1845 Commodore Morgan received orders to send the furniture and apparatus of the naval school to Annapolis, where the midshipmen under instruction were ordered to assemble. The present Naval Academy was thus definitely established.
Commodore Jacob Jones, an officer of great distinction in the War of 1812, followed Commodore Morgan, and he, in turn, was relieved after three years by Commodore George Campbell Read, who left this post to assume command of the Navy Yard at Philadelphia. To H. A. Adams, who followed as commander in charge, belongs the distinction of having been the first governor of the Home to have graduated from Annapolis, but he was soon followed by Commodore Geisenger, who remained for nearly three years.
It was in April, 1849, that the Home was taken from the cognizance of the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery and placed under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Yards and Docks. Later, in 1898, it was placed under the supervision and control of the Bureau of Navigation.
At one time a part of the grounds was used for burial purposes and it is of more than passing interest to note that the remains of Commodore Porter, of Essex fame, rested there for a year after having been brought from Constantinople, where he died. All bodies were later removed from the grounds.
Commodore George W. Storer followed Commodore Geisenger, and he in turn was followed by William Wister McKean, who returned as governor with the rank of captain. It was about this time that the first appropriation was made for the Home directly from the Treasury, instead of from the hospital fund as heretofore.
Commodore William Carmichael Nicholson then became governor during the exciting days preceding and during the opening months of the Civil War. So great was the ardor of the old men to reenter the service that a circular was issued announcing that when a beneficiary shipped he forfeited all the privileges of the Home. In August, 1862, Rear Admiral George Campbell Read died at the Home, and he was succeeded by Commodore Frederick Engle, who, at the outbreak of the Civil War, had been despatched to China to bring home the Hartford. The buildings were horribly crowded with the sick and wounded of the war.
Commodore Engle was followed by Rear Admiral Hiram Paulding, who had fired the Navy Yard at Norfolk, and who was the last of the governors to have served in the African difficulties, thus marking the passing of an era among the governors. Then came Rear Admiral James L. Lardner, who was on the Brandywine when Lafayette returned to France in 1825. He in turn was followed by Rear Admiral Melanchton Smith.
Then came Commodore George Beall Balch, who had himself studied at the Naval School when it was located at the Home. Commodore Balch was followed by Rear Admiral James Robert Madison Mullany, of Civil War fame.
In October, 1879, Rear Admiral Donald MacNeill Fairfax, of the famous Fairfax family of Virginia, became governor. It was Rear Admiral Fairfax who, as a lieutenant, in November, 1861, removed the Confederate Commissioners Mason and Slidell from the Trent to the San Jacinto. In October, 1881, he was relieved by Vice Admiral Stephen Clegg Rowan, who, a year later, was relieved by Captain Oscar Fitzalan Stanton.
Then followed a long list of officers of high rank, each of whom held the post for periods up to three or four years, Rear Admiral Henry Thomas Mayo, who demanded the Mexican apology at Tampico in April, 1914, being one of the outstanding later governors. Rear Admiral Albert Gleaves is the present governor of the Home, and it has been through his efforts that the tablet was erected to the men who had preceded him in his honorable post.
Medical Director Edward Shippen, U. S. Navy, published an able account of the history of the Home in the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, under the title, “Some Account of the Origin of the Naval Asylum at Philadelphia.” This was in 1877.